Fruitport’s Belasco instills what he learned at sea into his soccer coaching style

FRUITPORT–Chris Belasco could tell you some stories that would put you on the edge of your seat for hours on end.

 

The former member of the United States Navy, and current girls’ soccer coach at Fruitport High School, can go into great detail on his two deployments that took him into the Persian Gulf, including one that came shortly after 9/11.

 

There certainly were some anxious moments during his six-year career in the Navy that began at Naval Station Great Lakes near Chicago in 1998.

 

“I got into Advanced Electronics at the time and I wasn’t sure what that was,” Belasco said. “I just knew it was electronics and that was kind of what I wanted to do.”

 

Little did Belasco know that his future in electronics would take him to some different places in the world, including San Diego, Hawaii and the Persian Gulf.

 

He spent a year in San Diego for C-School then the adventure really began to unfold for Belasco. He was trained in weapons systems and radar systems. After graduating from C-School, he ended up on the USS Jarrett where he worked with weapons, radar, gun systems and missile tracking systems.

 

“It was a pretty awesome job, it was very hands-on,” Belasco said. “It was older technology so it needed a lot of troubleshooting and maintenance.”

 

San Diego was the base port for the USS Jarrett, an FF-33. 

 

His first deployment was in late 1999 and that took them from San Diego to Hawaii and then into the Persian Gulf for several months and getting directly involved in the U.S. sanctions against Iraq. But that deployment was nothing compared to what was to come.

 

The second deployment began in November of 2001, which was 2 months after 9/11.

 

“That was a very unique situation,” Belasco said. “Our ship was actually in dry dock and out of the water. We were getting maintenance done and we all got called back to the ship.”

 

The timetable for getting renovations done and back into the water happened in November, instead of the original plan, which was December. By late November, the USS Jarrett, with Belasco and his team of fellow midshipmen were back in the Persian Gulf, only this time, under a much more intense situation. For nearly six months, they cruised the gulf.

 

Part of their mission was boarding ships in the gulf looking for smuggled weapons or oil and any of the other sanctions the United States wanted enforced. 

 

“It was a good experience,” Belasco said. “It was pretty unique. A couple different ships were trying to smuggle.”

 

One such encounter was a combined effort between the US Jarrett and several other ships. The ship was a converted tanker with all of the doors bolted and welded shut and the windows had hatches from the inside with very small slits. The first boarding was done by the British Royal Marines and they found electrified barbed wire around it. They were able to clear and disable some of the traps that were set in case of such a boarding.

 

They were games of cat and mouse in the gulf with ships pulling into international waters, but when a threat was sensed, they would retreat into Iranian waters. There was a time the crew of a boarded ship intentionally set their chart room on fire to destroy evidence.

 

“We would board container ships and we were trained to climb the containers to verify different stuff in the containers,” Belasco said. “That was pretty awesome being a 20-year-old out there climbing containers and putting up rigging and repelling down stuff. Those were good times too.”

 

Now, Belasco’s adventures include working for Consumers Energy, where he’s been for nearly 20 years.

 

Belasco, in his third year as the Trojans’ coach, graduated from Muskegon Catholic in 1997 and played for the Crusaders’ club team.

 

His coaching began when his son was just getting started at age 7. At that point, he was just a helper because he worked second shift.

 

Running practices got him hooked on the coaching aspect of the game.

 

“I really enjoy it,” said Belasco, who later coached both of his daughters. “So, I kept going. It just started as an assistant trying to help out.”

 

After assisting Jeannie McClain, Belasco took over the top job three seasons ago.

 

“We’ve had our ups and downs, injuries and trying to find our way,” he said. “We have a mix of a few good seniors and a few young ones.”

 

And he’s been able to instill a couple of the traits he picked up along the way during his career in the Navy.

 

“Just a passion for what you are doing, sticking with it, working through adversity and coming together as a team,” Belasco said.

 

“When you’re on a ship and we’re self-reliant on each other, I try to bring that mentality of trusting your teammates and they definitely become your family.

 

“That is what was instilled in us.”